dear maNi,
this is not exactly the right material for the core
bhakti-list, and belongs more in the sv-general
category i feel.. Howerver, in the interest of
reaching a bigger audience, I am sending it to the
bhakti-list core list. Please use your judgement,
and if you feel it is appropriate, allow it
on bhakti-list.
adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,
varadhan
-------------
srImathE rAmAnujAya namah
dear bhAgavathAs,
As most of us in the forum know, Prof.APJ Abdul
Kalam is a truly unique inspirational leader and
a great son of India/the world. His insights and
his thoughts are truly amazing. His interests
range from missiles/nuclear devices to developing
artificial material for prosthetic devices to
leadership and many other things.. He is a deep
reader of the Koran as well as the BhagavadgIta!.
The following is an excerpt from a speech given
by him. It truly attests not only to the greatness
of Prof. Kalam, but more importantly attests to
the universality of our dear rAmAnujA's teachings
and the wonderful sprit of the AzhvArs, and
of course, the greatness of mElukOte.
this can be found on www.abdulkalam.com and
in the section called "Speech".
adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,
varadhan
---
Our Life And Culture
The second incident was a happy and divine one. I have
a friend called Mr. Lakshmi Tathachar, who is the
Director of Sanskrit Research centre, Melukote in
Karnataka. he is an expert in Tamil and Sanskrit. i
have an interest in the Panini grammer, based on that,
some research is being done at the Sanskrit Researxh
Centre. He invited me to Melukote, where 'Acharya
Ramanujar' walked a thousand years ago. I got an
opportunity to go to Melukote on 26th July
I felt strange sensation of happiness filling in me
as soon as I reached Melukote. As I remembered that
this was the same place where Ramanujar walked and the
showed the spiritual path to the world. While walking,
I felt a divine satisfaction filling in me. I saw
Tathachar's research centre, his beautiful garden and
the famous Sri Narayanar temple in Melukote. I found
there is a link between history and the spirituality
as that temple, a historical place, tells the story
that happened a millenium ago.
After seeing the temple, Tathachar took me to his
enchanting garden. I can not forget the scenic beauty
and the happiness on seeing it. I saw greenery
wherever I turned, with a loss of flowers , trees,
herbal plants, vegetables and fruits. There were
amazing varieties of flowers with so different
colours. The combined nice smell of flowers, the honey
bees circling the flowers, bewitching butterflies,
singing birds, dancing peacocks, merrily jumping deers
and a pond full of anxious fishes poped up on top of
water level to see Tathachar and his guests! All these
scenic beauty gave me great happiness. What a
wonderful scene! Amidst such wonderful scene, saints
from the Sanskrit research Centre were chanting
mantras on 'Purusha Shuktham'. I wondered whether 'was
this called a divine paradise' ? There was an obvious
divine satisfaction at that place where the Almighty
and Nature mingle with each other. I saw the
vegetables, fruits and flowers were all the result of
hard labour and sweat. All plants were grown using
natural manure and I soon realised that the hard work
and the sweat only bloomed as beautiful flowers and
spread the scent everywhere. When the spirituality is
mingled with hard work, there we can certainly see
such a paradise on esrth.
Later I was taken to his library. I spent an hour
seeing the old manuscripts on a palm leaves, carefully
preserved for over thousand years. I had an
opportunity to see the rare collections of books both
old and new in the same library. I was amazed
to see Tathachar using his laptop computer, sitting on
rock in a typical 'Kurukal' atmosphere explaining the
results of the research on the computer. This is an
indication to our generation to preserve our culture
and tradition and at the same time to be modern in
thoughts and attitude. Our Indian culture is keep on
growing and refining. While the essence of our culture
and tradition is retained, the way of life of modern
and future times are adopted. Even after reaching
Delhi, the imprints of Melukote did not leave from my
heart.
The divine light of Melukote
Ramanujar preached a philosophy for the whole mankind.
He said everyone should live amicably and not to find
any difference with each other. I heard the philosophy
reverberating in my ears while at Melukote. I also
heard through the saints of Melukote, the incident
that happened in Ramanujar's life. Ramanujar was
initiated by his Guru with the mantra which would take
him to attain the 'Moksha', but he wanted every one to
attain 'Moksha' and unrevealed the same to everyone.
The wonderful scenes I saw at Melukote was also
depicted as a song in 'Andal 's Thirppavai' . Andal
was the only woman among the Alwars, lived much before
Ramanujar
"Let us all sing in praise of the lord who
measured this world
With love and affection we bathed the lord
in pure water
Blessed to have rain thrice every month, our
sins washed out
Well grown paddy bore the finest grain
Fishes jump out, while honey bee sleept on
lotus flower
Let us all be prosperous and praise the lord.
As depicted about the divine power in the song, I also
realised in the temple of Sri Narayanar temple at
Melukote , an echo of Ramanujar calling the deity 'my
little daughter come' , then the deity started walking
towards Ramanujar!
Alwar means one who is immersed in the experience of
god. They have demonstrated the fact to the world,
whoever immerses in deep thoughts to attain the
highest goal, will certainly attain it. There were 12
Alwars, came from all walks of life and all strata of
society. They have also shown the way if we are not
finding any difference with each other and have a big
common goal, weall can certainly raise and realise the
same. Alwars lived as role-models thousand yeasrs ago,
we all should united and have one big aim to see the
prosperous developed India. There are villages and
small townships like Melukote everywhere in India.
There is happy and prosperous life to make the people
attain as what could be called as a good, satisfying
life. India is still a Developing Country even after
50 years. We all should bring forth the spirituality
lying inside each one of us, with that we work hard
with a vision for 20 years to make bloom India as a
Developed Country.
-------------------
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